The Foster Child
by Moonlady
Summary: Better summary inside. Arthur's family takes in a foster child. Ratburn/OFC in the future.
1. Prologue

**Title:** The Foster Child  
**Rating:** PG-13ish  
**Pairing:** Ratburn/OFC (Mostly theoretical for now)  
**Summary:** The Read family takes in a teenage foster kid. She develops a crush on Mr. Ratburn. Mostly just a genfic about her interactions with the entire cast, but has a lot about a relationship trying to develop between her and him and the taboo of a 30-something and a teenager getting together in a romantic sense.  
I apologize for any Mary Sue-ing, I do try to avoid it but sometimes it's just inevitable because I'm just not that great a writer.

**Author's Note:** I had this idea forever and a half ago. I don't really remember how it originated. If people like it I'll write more.

**Disclaimer:** Arthur the Aardvark belongs to Marc Brown and PBSkids. I don't own it in any way, shape, or form. This story is for entertainment purposes only, I'm not making any money off of this.

* * *

Prologue.

Arthur's mom and dad sat him and D.W. down on the couch.  
"Kids, we've got some exciting news." She started. D.W. shot up from her seat and started going wild with guesses.  
"Are we getting a pony? Are we moving to a castle? Did you win a lifetimes supply of ice cream? Are you getting rid of Arthur? Are we getting another sister?" She asked.  
"Well you're getting closer with that last guess..." Mrs. Read started in order to edge back into the conversation.  
"ANOTHER little sister? Mom you can't..." Arthur groaned.  
"No, no, that's not it. Both of you just calm down and let me talk." Mrs. Read picked D.W. up and put her back on the couch. "You're not getting another little sister. You're not really getting a sister. But what IS happening is a girl is going to come and live with us. We're taking in a foster child, she's quite a bit older than you and Arthur."  
"What's a foster child? Is her last name Foster? Who are these people, do we know anyone named Foster?" D.W. asked suspiciously.  
"A foster child is like an orphan D.W. Only they don't live in orphanages they live in homes with people who agree to take care of them until they're adopted. The girl we're taking in is 16 years old so she's probably not going to get adopted. We've agreed to take her in until she turns 18. That's why we've been refurbishing the attic. We're changing it into her bedroom." Mr. Read explained to them.  
"You mean we're getting an older sister? One older than Arthur?" D.W asked.  
"No, not really sweetie," Mrs. Read answered. "She probably won't think of us as family. She'll be more like a guest who'll be staying with us for a while. She might start seeming like a part of the family after a while."

"So, I heard mom and dad talking. They say she's a 'problem child', does anyone know what that means?" Arthur asked after reiterating the story to his friends at the sugar bowl.  
"They mean she makes trouble, like a bully or something." The Brain said.  
"That's not always right. At the center that hosts my Big Brother Big Sister program they say they've got a lot of 'problem children' there," Buster added. "I think it means they've got a lot of problems in their life and so that makes them act bad sometimes."  
"Whatever it means it can't be good for you Arthur. Either way it means you're going to be living with someone who wants to pick on you all the time. And I know all about teenagers, they act weird all the time and want to hog the bathroom." Francine interjected with her opinion.  
Arthur groaned and put his head in his hands.

* * *

**Author's Note:** What do you think?


	2. Chapter 1: Arrival

**Author's Note:** I figure I should put the first chapter up even if I don't do anything else. Right?

* * *

Chapter 1: Arrival

Arthur couldn't sleep at all. His head kept conjuring up images of a fanged teenager, with red eyes, who wouldn't let him use the bathroom. It was miserable. And even after he did get to sleep the idea was still in his head and so he dreamed about it.  
Arthur spent the next two weeks dreading the arrival of the girl, whose name was Abigail he found out, and jumping at the sound of the doorbell when it interrupted his daydreams.

"I still can't believe that they're doing this." Arthur said to his friends miserably while on a swing at the park. "Why couldn't it at least have been another boy?"  
"Arthur, you should be excited. I'll bet having an older kid around will be great. They'll be able to teach you things about growing up that your parents have already forgotten because they did it such a long time ago." Buster said from another swing.  
"I wish my parents would take in a foster kid..." Sue Ellen, who had always wanted a sibling, said with a sigh.  
"I thought after you tried to find a brother or sister of your own that one time, that you didn't want one?" Arthur reminded her.  
"Yeah... But maybe if they weren't REALLY my sister or brother then it'd be different." Sue Ellen reasoned.  
Arthur stopped the swing at that and looked up in thought.

"Yeah, that's true..." Francine said. "But if she's not really going to be your sister then there won't be anything holding her back from really giving it to you." She reasoned darkly.  
"What do you mean?" Arthur asked from the other side of the teeter-toter they were on.  
"Well, Catherine teases me and wrestles with me all the time. But she never goes too far because we're family. She loves me and so she doesn't really want to hurt me. Just get me to stop whatever I'm doing that's annoying her." Francine explained. "Same with you and D.W. right?"  
"Yeah..." Arthur said slowly.  
"Well, this girl isn't going to have that with you since you're not really her brother. She won't care if she hurts you, she might pop your head off if she puts you in a headlock like Catherine does me." Francine stopped the teeter-toter because she was laughing too hard at the image. She slid off and Arthur fell to the ground.  
"OW!"

Finally the day came. She was arriving today.  
"Get cleaned up," Mrs. read told Arthur and D.W. "She's going to be here in about an hour. Arthur groaned quietly.

~*~*~*[Elsewhere]*~*~*~

Abigail had her head leaned against the window of the car, she looked like she was being escorted to her execution. She sighed for the 5th time in the last half hour.  
"You don't have to be like that," Caroline, the caseworker, said from the drivers seat. "These are very nice people and they're very excited to meet you." Caroline reminded her.  
"They're all very nice people and they're always very excited to meet me. That never stops them from trying to get rid of me as soon as possible after they meet me." Abigail countered.  
"Well, maybe if you had a better attitude..." Caroline muttered. Abigail glared at her halfheartedly. Caroline sighed.  
"Abigail... is it too much to ask that you at least try to get along with these people? You haven't even met them, you might like them." Caroline pressed optimistically. Abigail slid down in her seat and put her knees up against the dash.  
"... yeah." Abigail said quietly after a moment. "I might." She conceded. Caroline gave a sad and exasperated smile.

After a long while in which Abigail had managed not to sigh once, and Caroline was driving the car less tensely, they turned into the Read's neighborhood.  
"They live around here somewhere." Caroline spoke up. Abigail sat up and looked around.  
"Oh geez, they live in suburbia?" Abigail whined. "You might as well take me back now."  
"A change of scenery might do you good. God knows you've been pushed around inner city slums long enough." And if God didn't know it then at least Caroline did. She'd had to pull a lot of strings to get Abigail out of there, she counted herself extremely lucky to have found the Reads at all.  
They pulled up in front of the Read home and Caroline turned off the car.  
"You ready to meet them?" Caroline asked Abigail softly.  
Abigail leaned against the dash to look out the windshield at the house. It was a sunny yellow color with green green trim.  
"It looks like an Easter egg." Abigail said in a flat voice. Caroline rolled her eyes.  
"C'mon, I'll help you with your things." Caroline said in a voice that would bare little argument. She popped the trunk and they both got out.

"They're here!" D.W. shouted from the window where she'd been watching for them.  
"Alright everyone, don't crowd the door or you'll make her nervous." Jane said hurriedly. "Sit down in the living room." She added. She peeked out the small window in the door. David was looking over her shoulder. As soon as Abigail and Caroline turned to start up the walk she closed the curtain.  
"Why can't I look?" D.W. whined.  
"D.W. go sit down." Jane said firmly as she lead D.W. back into the living room. The doorbell ran and everyone jumped a little even though they were all expecting it.  
"I got it!" David said so that Jane wouldn't worry herself into tripping over her feet.  
David opened the door and there stood Caroline with a dark haired girl with pointy ears and blue eyes, who he assumed was Abigail.  
"Caroline, it's nice to see you again." He greeted. "And you must be Abigail. Come in." He said as he opened the door wider.  
"Thanks David, it's nice to see you again too." Caroline said as she stepped inside. Abigail stepped inside quietly.  
"You can just leave all these bags here for now, we'll take them up when we show you your room." David said as he took the bags from Caroline and set them down next to the wall. Abigail did the same with the ones she was holding.  
"Come meet the family Abigail." David put a hand on the back of Abigail's shoulder and led her into the living room.  
In the living room the Read family were all sitting on the couch looking almost like a portrait, only with all the eyes looking at her expectantly. She swallowed what she was sure would have been a very piteous nervous whine.  
"This is my wife Jane, and she's holding Baby Kate." David said, gesturing to the woman with the baby in her lap. "And these are our other two kids. Arthur and D.W." He pointed to the boy and the younger girl respectively.  
There was a pause where Abigail gathered she was supposed to say something.  
"Hello." She said, opting for the easy route. That seemed to be enough.  
"Hello Abigail, we're so happy to meet you." Jane beamed at her, making her feel like she should have brought sunglasses.  
Abigail looked at the two kids, both of whom were regarding her somewhat suspiciously. Jane nudged the one closest to her, the boy, and he jumped a little.  
"Uh... Hello," He hesitated.  
"Hi! I'm D.W.!" The girl said, as if Abigail hadn't heard the introduction. "I'm the adorable and well behaved one." D.W. informed her.  
"That's enough D.W." David said in a smiling voice. D.W. then proceeded to beam at Abigail just a brightly as her mother had.  
Abigail looked at all of them and gave a somewhat strained smile.  
"Nice to meet you all." Abigail said in what she hoped wasn't a weak voice. Meeting the 'family' was always the worst part of moving to a new place. But it was apparently doubly stressful when it was an actual family. It almost made her glad that she'd never been adopted.

"And this is your room." Jane said as she pulled down the attic trap door.  
"In the attic?" Abigail questioned.  
"It's been completely refurbished into a bedroom." Jane said with satisfaction. She pulled down the ladder and grabbed one of the bags, hefting it up as she went into the attic. Abigail swung her dufflebag around to her back and started hefting the bags she had up the ladder as well.  
The room was nice. A bit short, but it made up for it in the fact that they had given her the entire attic for floorspace.  
"This is really nice." Abigail said, looking around the room. She put her things down next to the bed at the far side of the room. Next to the bed was a desk, it was sitting under one of the windows. Along one of the sides of the room where the roof sloped down were build in closets and drawers, and along the other was just a decorative curtain on a gold colored curtain rod. She found out there was a clothes hamper and a trashcan behind it.  
"It's a little bare right now, but if you don't have any of your own decorations to put up we can go to the store and find some things." Jane said, startling Abigail a bit.  
"I've got a few things." Abigail replied.  
Before Jane could say anything in reply there was a shout from the trapdoor.  
"Jane? There are still a few things that we need to go over with Caroline." It was David.  
"I'll be right there." Jane said to the floor. "Well, make yourself at home." She said to Abigail.  
"Thanks Mrs. Read." Abigail said.  
"Call me Jane." Jane said as she descended the ladder. She was down the stairs before Abigail could reply though.  
Abigail looked down the ladder with a bit of a sigh. She went over to the desk and opened the window. The room still had that stuffy attic feel too it, maybe because it was summer. She flopped down on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. She let out the groan she'd been holding back and put the pillow over her head.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Mr. Ratburn is still a few chapters away if you're wondering. I don't want to rush the story too much just for the sake of it y'know?


	3. Chapter 2: Getting to know you

**Author's Note**: So I Google'd Elwood City, and I found one in Indiana. Thus it shall be for this fanfic. I figure that's pretty accurate due to the sort of weather depicted in the show. Also Arthur mentions relatives in Ohio every so often, which is close by enough to be believable for them to be coming down for his birthday.

* * *

Chapter 2: Getting to know you

"Arthur, go and tell Abigail that dinner will be ready soon and she should come downstairs." David told Arthur as he wandered into the kitchen.  
"What? Why me?" Arthur asked, trying to sound more whiny than scared.  
"Why not you?" David asked. Arthur hesitated. After a moment David think he understood.  
"Arthur, she's not going to hurt you." David said placatingly.  
"I'm not scared." Arthur said quickly. "I'll go get her." He left the kitchen.

Arthur went upstairs and saw that the attic ladder was still down. He climbed it slowly and peeked into the room. Nothing was different, Abigail hadn't unpacked anything yet. He looked around and noticed she was on the bed.  
"Did... Are you asleep?" Arthur asked, not raising his voice very much.  
"No." Came a groggy voice from the pillow. Arthur almost slipped off the ladder in surprise.  
"Uhh... Well, Dad says dinner will be ready really soon." Arthur said.  
Abigail grunted and took the pillow off her head. She sat up and looked at him, it certainly looked like she'd been asleep.  
"Did Caroline leave already?" Abigail asked tiredly.  
"She... left about about an hour ago." Arthur came further into the room and sat down on the edge of the trapdoor, feeling a little more comfortable. Abigail sagged a little bit with a sigh. She looked really tired still.  
"I can tell them you fell asleep if you want." Arthur offered.  
"What?" Abigail started. "What- no, that's alright. I'll come down." Abigail said as she got off the bed. She stretched a little and came over to the trapdoor.  
"You look sad." Arthur noted as Abigail sat down next to him.  
"Not sad, just a little tired and stressed out. It's been a really long day." Abigail explained. Arthur started down the ladder and Abigail followed.

Abigail and the Reads all sat down at the dinner table.  
"So, what are we having for dinner?" Jane asked as she set the table, D.W helping with the silverware.  
"Pork roast, mash potatoes and gravy, corn, and spinach." David replied.  
Arthur, D.W., and Abigail all gagged simultaneously. Jane had to turn away for a moment to stifle her giggles.  
"Do you not like spinach?" Jane asked once she'd caught control of her voice.  
"I don't like pork." Abigail clarified.  
"You're not a vegetarian, are you?" David asked as he brought the roast to the terrible, thinking that he should have asked before.  
"No, I've just never really liked pork." Abigail reassured. David nodded and put the roast down on the table.  
"So, tell us a little about yourself Abigail." Jane asked to start the conversation as she sat down.  
"Uhh..." Abigail hedged.  
"You don't have to tell us anything uncomfortable." Jane said quickly. "You lived in Akron before coming here right? What was that like?"  
"Crowded. It was a state home right in the middle of the city, there wasn't really a lot of room to breathe." Abigail said solemnly. "It was mostly full of 8-12 year old kids so I was getting sort of old to be there. Most of the teenaged kids in that area tend to have gone into..." Abigail paused awkwardly. "... uhhh, got into trouble. Before they got to my age."  
David paused in the cutting of the roast and Jane grimaced as they both realized what she meant.  
"Uhh... anyway, I was sort of isolated in my age group." Abigail gave a pained smile.  
"Oh, well there are plenty of nice girls your age to hang out with." Jane said quickly to change the subject before D.W. or Arthur decided to be bored with gagging at their spinach and to start asking questions.  
"Arthur, maybe you can ask Francine to introduce Abigail to her sister." Jane said.  
"What?" Arthur said, looking up from his plate.  
"I said that maybe Abigail would like to meet Francine's sister." Jane paraphrased herself.  
Arthur looked at Abigail, who just looked confused and shrugged at him.  
"Oh... Okay." Arthur hesitated. "I'll tell Francine when I see her tomorrow." Arthur affirmed.  
"Well, that's settled then." Jane said, obviously pleased with herself.

~*~*~*[The Next Day]*~*~*~

"She wants to meet Catherine?" Francine asked, perched on her bike at the top of the hill in the park.  
"I think my Mom just wants her to meet Catherine." Arthur clarified. "She needs friends and she's the same as your sister." Arthur explained.  
"Well, what can I tell Catherine about her?" Francine asked.  
"Um, well, she used to live in Ohio and... she dresses a little weird?" Arthur answered.  
"Well, Catherine really likes clothes. So maybe that'll interest her." Francine supposed as she started down the hill.  
Arthur went after her.

* * *

**Author's Note**: I think I'll stop it there since I've been procrastinating on putting this one out. I thought I might add more, but I didn't. Stay tuned for more stuff later.


	4. Chapter 3: Catherine

**Author's Note**: Next chapter. Gave Catherine more depth than the show ever delved into. I actually don't know if they ever said anything about what Catherine was at all interested in career wise. So I took a shot in the dark. She seems like the type for the career I chose for her. Lemme know what you think of it I guess.

* * *

Chapter 3: Catherine

"Arthur's agreed to take you over there, he's getting his friend Francine to go play in the park. You can use my bicycle for now, and we'll get you one sometime soon." Jane said the next day. Abigail nodded, but was a little more concerned with Arthur.  
"You said I dress weird?" She questioned. "I'm wearing a blouse and capris, how is that weird?" Abigail looked down at her outfit, reassessing it to assure herself of her opinion. Maybe he meant her choice of accessories, most of which she'd made herself.  
"I couldn't think of anything to say!" Arthur protested. It was a valid argument, Abigail had been there all of two days. He just didn't know enough about her.  
Abigail just rolled her eyes.  
"Let's just go, shall we?" She said.  
Abigail flattened her ears and put on the bike helmet. She then swung her purse behind her and put her leg over the bike.  
Arthur sighed and started towards the Frensky's without a word.

"Hi Mr. Frensky." Arthur said as the door opened.  
"Hi Arthur, Francine's waiting for you. I'll go get her, c'mon in." Mr. Frensky opened the door and ushered the two of them in. He went into the hallway. Abigail took this time to look aimlessly around the apartment. It was a little small, but nice.  
"Hi Arthur! C'mon lets go or we're gonna be late for the race!" Francine said as she bolted into the living room, helmet in hand. She grabbed Arthur by the arm and they were out the door.  
"Bye Abigail!" Arthur shouted from down the hall.  
Catherine had entered the room more sedately.  
"Hi, we can use my bedroom to hang out now that the little spore is gone for the day."  
"Um.. kay." Abigail replied and followed Catherine back to her room.  
"So, what's Ohio like?" Catherine asked.  
"Boring. Everyone there was sort of depressed all the time. And the city I lived in was sort of dirty."  
"Have you always lived there?"  
"No. I lived in Georgia until I was 5. With my Mom and 4 older siblings. Then I went to live with my Grandmother, and she lived in Ohio. She died when I was 13 and that's when I went into state custody." Abigail answered.  
"Why didn't you go back to live with your family?" Catherine asked, clearly full of questions about the subject.  
"I dunno, no one could find them. I've got a few relatives scattered around but none of them wanted to take responsibility for me. An Aunt that doesn't like me and a drunkard father, that sort of thing." Abigail explained.  
"Sounds terrible." Catherine moaned.  
"I don't think about it much. It's just sort of the way my life went. It helps to remember that there are people that are worse off somewhere." Abigail said. "I read depressing news, it cheers me up."  
"A bit morbid, but an overall nice outlook on life I guess." Catherine mused.

"So, where did you get those pants anyway?" Catherine asked. She had complimented them earlier.  
"They're just regular capris that I decorated myself." Abigail replied. They were denim and had a paisley inspired pattern around the outer seams and the hem.  
"With what?" Catherine asked.  
"Fabric dye. You can find it at any craft store." Abigail answered, holding her leg out to examine the pattern. It was sort of faded.  
"How artistic." Catherine said admiringly. "I wish I could do that sort of thing."  
"It's easy. I mostly do it out of boredom though. They less you have to do the more you find to do. I used to just scribble on my jeans withe ballpoint pen. So I figured that I might as well make it look nice.  
If you wanted to do something like this for your jeans craft stores also sell stencils that work well for it." Abigail encouraged.  
"Could you do it for me?" Catherine pleaded.  
"Sorry, no commissions." Abigail grinned. "It's more fun if you do it yourself anyway. I can help you set it up if you like."  
"That'd be great." Catherine said enthusiastically.

Catherine was nice. They had a few differences, but found something to like about one another easy enough.  
Catherine had gushed over Abigail's homemade accessories, especially the wristband made out of a cutoff black dress sock and a broken plastic rhinestone bracelet. She'd also admired Abigail's sketchbook even though it was new and only had a few sketches in it.  
Abigail really liked how up to date Catherine was on current events and social trends. "Do you watch a lot of news?" Abigail asked.  
"No. Well, yes, but that's not where I get most of my information. The news doesn't say a lot most of the time. I use the internet and social networking sites." Catherine explained.  
"I don't use the computer very much. I've never had steady access to one. Except maybe at school, and they block those sorts of sites." Abigail said.  
"Yeah, that seems really unfair. Some of us don't use them just to goof off. I'm trying to write an essay on how social networking sites effect the way we look at news stories. But it's hard when I can't show the teachers my references on the school computers." Catherine sighed. "It makes it seem less credible, even though all the teachers I show it too really seem to like the subject."  
"What sort of classes do you take that you're writing that sort of essay?" Abigail asked incredulously.  
"Oh, it's not for any class. I'm writing it as a college entrance essay for when I start filling out college applications." Catherine said.  
"But you're only going into Junior year." Abigail protested halfheartedly.  
"Well, it's a really interesting subject so I wanted to get started on it early." Catherine explained. "I want to be a political science major. With a minor in reporting so that I can be a TV news anchor and actually know what I'm talking about." She added.  
"I haven't really thought about what I wanted to do." Abigail said. "Didn't think it was all that important I guess." She just shrugged.  
"I wouldn't worry about it. Lots of the kids at the school you're gonna be going to don't have any idea either." Catherine waved it off. "Some people just know what they want to be right away. I've known what I wanted to be ever since I first started watching the news and understanding it." Catherine justified.  
Abigail shrugged.  
"Hey, I've got an idea, lets go to the Sugar Bowl." Catherine said, her mind changing track randomly.  
"The what?" Abigail asked.  
"The local ice cream shop." Catherine explained. "I'll buy you a shake." She added when it looked like Abigail might refuse.  
"Yeah, I guess so." Abigail conceded. "But make it a malt." She added as they got up.  
"But malts cost 30 cents extra!" Catherine complained teasingly.

* * *

**Author's Note**: This seems like a good place to wrap this chapter up. Next chapter will probably have Abigail meeting the entire main 8 year old cast in one sitting at the Sugar Bowl. Then I can get down to actual story stuff more or less.


	5. Chapter 4: The Sugar Bowl

**Author's Note:** Yeah okay, I've put off writing this chapter for a while. I really couldn't figure out how to write it without it being like a weird awkward formal introduction. And except for the fact that they're the main characters I couldn't really figure out any good reason for Abigail to be introduced to a bunch of 8 year olds... So yeah, weird situation is weird.

* * *

Chapter 4: The Sugar Bowl

Abigail staggered off her bike and into the Sugar Bowl, Catherine was already inside gloating. Abigail noted with some satisfaction that Catherine was just as out of breath as she was. "You had the home field advantage. I kept having to stop to read the road signs and avoid the potholes." Abigail complained.  
"Sore loser." Catherine said, waving away Abigail's excuses. Abigail blew a raspberry at her and slid onto a bar stool to catch her breath. Abigail raised an eyebrow as a kid came into view behind the counter, wearing a paper hat and apron.  
"Hi Brain." Catherine said cheerfully. "Two shakes please."  
"Malt!" Abigail protested again.  
"But you lost." Catherine replied.  
"I'll spring for the difference then."  
"What flavors?" The kid, Brain, asked.  
"Strawberry for the shake and chocolate for the malt." Catherine answered. Brain got to work.  
"Not to be rude or anything, but you're sort of young to be working aren't you?" Abigail asked.  
"This shop belongs to my parents." Brain explained. "Working here is sort of just part of my chores. I get an allowance for it though."  
Abigail nodded absentmindedly, thinking vaguely of what it must be like to have a part-time job at 8 years old. Before she could think about it too much a stampede of kids came through the door, dusty and rowdy. Abigail turned her head and saw Arthur among them, and Catherine spotted her sister and waved at her. This sort of made Abigail uncomfortable but she couldn't really say why.  
"How did the races go?" Brain asked from behind the shake machine, clearly recognizing the group.  
"Francine kicked our butts!" The rabbit commented jovially.

Arthur froze in shock when he spotted Abigail at the bar. Abigail just gave him a look and rolled her eyes at his reaction. Arthur sighed and sidled up to the bar with the rest of the group, taking his attention off Abigail and back onto the discussion.  
"I almost had you! If my back tire hadn't skid on that last corner I would have beat you." Binky complained loudly.  
"Then you need to learn to handle the curves better." Francine said smugly. Her smug attitude diminished when she turned out her pockets and found she didn't have the money for the soda she just ordered. She sighed and then looked over to the bar.  
"Catherine~!" Francine whined. "Will you pay for my soda please?" Francine went up to Catherine and gave the best puppy-dog face she could possibly manage, clasping her hands under her chin for good measure.  
"Francine, did you forget your money again? You're hopeless." Catherine complained even as she dug the money out of her purse.  
"Thanks Catherine, I'll pay you back when I get home, promise!" Francine beamed.  
Catherine looked at her wallet and frowned.  
"I don't have quite enough to cover yours now, you've got some money right?" Catherine asked Abigail miserably.  
"Don't worry, I can get mine." Abigail assured.  
Arthur stopped paying attention after that. He slipped into the booth without ordering anything.  
"Why didn't you get a soda?" Buster asked.  
"Huh?" Arthur looked down at the table, just now realizing that he hadn't ordered anything. "Oh... I was just..."  
"Catherine and Abigail seem to be getting along. I guess your Mom was right Arthur." Francine said as she sat down.  
Arthur jumped in surprise and tensed a little as everyone at the table looked at him curiously.  
"What's she mean Arthur?" Buster asked, sipping on his soda.  
"Abigail is the girl that my parents took in." Arthur answered, sounding uncomfortable.  
"Is she nice?" Sue Ellen asked, twisting around to get a better look at the teenager at the bar.  
"I dunno." Arthur answered truthfully. "She only got here the day before yesterday and she spends all her time in her room unless Mom calls her down for meals."  
"I'm gonna say hi!" Buster said cheerfully as he finished his soda. He slid up and over the back of the booth and hurried out of the one behind it and over to the counter.  
"What?" Arthur asked, then looked around in alarm as everyone else followed Buster. Arthur scrambled out of the booth to follow them.

Abigail smiled politely as Brain handed her back her change, but was caught completely off guard by the beaming smile he gave her in return when she dumped that same change into the tip jar. She wrote it off as enthusiasm for the acknowledgement of a job well done (via money). She was startled out of her musing by the aforementioned stampede of kids, whom were now heading in her direction. She yelped and tucked her legs in against the stool.  
"Hi! My name's Buster, I'm Arthur's best friend. How ya doin'?" The rabbit asked.  
"Um..." Abigail quirked an eyebrow at Catherine, who just shrugged lazily, clearly having no idea what the younger kids were up to.  
"Hi?" Abigail guessed. The other kids took this as an OK to crowd around her in enthusiastic curiosity.  
"So the Reads are nice, do you like it there so far?" The curly haired cat girl asked.  
"Where you from? Do you like Elwood City?" Came from the heavyset boy who stood about a head taller than the rest of them.  
There were about a dozen other questions too that she just didn't catch. Abigail fought the desire to stand up on the stool and wave her purse around screaming 'Back! Back you fiends!'.  
"So... you're all Arthur's friends then?" Abigail opted to ask, rather than answering any of the questions.

As for Arthur is was near the back, still looking sort of uncomfortable about the whole thing. It seemed sort of weird to be introducing his friends to someone who was still pretty much a stranger, even if he was supposed to be making her feel welcome. He pressed on anyway and started the introductions.  
"Umm... Well, you sort of already met Francine," Arthur started, Francine gave a little wave. "And This is Buster, and Binky, Sue Ellen and Muffy. Oh, and that's Brain." Arthur was pointing at everyone from his place in the back, and they all waved a little at the sound of their names.  
"Nice to meet you." Abigail said after a moments hesitation. "Name's Abigail." She tacked on.  
They all seemed satisfied and gave her their toothiest grins.

~*~*~*~*Later That Day*~*~*~*~

"How'd it go today?" Jane asked as Abigail and Arthur both came through the door early that evening.  
"Well, it went well for most of the day." Abigail replied. "Then we went to the Sugar Bowl and I was Shanghaied by Arthur and his friends and subjected to the 8 year olds version of the 3rd degree."  
Jane quirked an eyebrow at Arthur at that.  
"Don't look at me! It wasn't my idea. She was just there when we all went to the Sugar Bowl for sodas after the race. Then Francine mentioned that you were right about Catherine and her getting along and I had to explain what she meant. Then everyone was really interested so they kept bugging her." Arthur explained in a rush, like he thought he was going to get in trouble.  
Jane just giggled behind her hand and waved him off.  
"Catherine was nice though. We had fun." Abigail added. "She liked my wristband and I liked her earrings so we exchanged gifts. I'm going to teach her how to put designs on her clothing."  
"I'm so glad that worked out and you had fun." Jane said, sounding not at all smug about her idea going so well. Abigail had to admit it was a point in her favor.  
"Your friends are gonna leave me alone now right?" Abigail asked, turning her attention back to Arthur.  
"Um..."  
"I mean, they're not going to ask a lot of questions anymore right? I don't care if they want to say hello or something." Abigail explained.  
"Oh... yeah. They'll stop." Arthur agreed.  
Abigail nodded in solemn satisfaction.  
"It's almost time for dinner so you should probably get cleaned up." Jane said to the both of them before going to the kitchen.

* * *

**Author's Note:** And now onto more interesting stuff in the next chapter maybe. I'll probably skip a few weeks in-story at this point. Simply to move things along.


	6. Chapter 5: Mr Ratburn

**Author's Note:** Guess who FINALLY comes in on this chapter? Oh yeah.

* * *

Chapter 5: Mr. Ratburn

Abigail took a deep breath and looked at the ditch again.  
The pack of teenagers on bikes that she'd run into had set up a ramp on one side and they were all going to jump it, but they had dared her to do it first.  
Normally Abigail considered herself to be above the influence of being dared to do something stupid, but she was still new in town. She was still building a reputation with every action she took. Backing down to something like this could set her up for a potential social downfall really fast.  
So here she was about to jump a rather large ditch via rickety blank ramp in order to secure some standing with the daredevil crowd.  
Crap.  
She took another deep breath and started towards the ditch. She lined up her path and gathered speed, heading straight towards the makeshift ramp. She fought the urge to close her eyes as it came closer. "Oh geez," She muttered. Her tires hit the ramp and-! She landed clean on the other side. The cacophony of cheers from the group was very satisfying. The victory didn't last long though. In her relief her arms relaxed a little too much and she lost control of the bike. Consequently she side swiped a very large tree.  
"Ow," Abigail squeaked, her eyes watering.

Nigel was driving home from the library and had just turned down Maple when he spotted a girl limping down the sidewalk with her bike. The site was sort of endearing. Perhaps she'd just gotten a little over ambitious trying a trick on her bike and got a little banged up in the process. He smiled at the thought.  
When he got a little closer and picked up the details of the scene he noted something was wrong. She seemed to be trailing blood from one of her sneakers and leaving a partial footprint in red on the sidewalk.  
How badly was she hurt?  
He pulled over and rolled down the passengers side window.  
"Are you alright?" He shouted at the girl. She jumped and turned to look at his car. He decided that it didn't bode well that she hadn't noticed him pull up in the first place.  
"Umm... f-fine," She answered. As she turned to face him he could see her right leg more clearly. Her entire right side was scraped up, but her knee and shin seemed to be the worst. Most of the blood seemed to be coming from a deep gash just under her knee. It looked like it would need stitches. After looking past the blood he could see her knee was starting to swell as well.  
"How on Earth did you do that?" Nigel asked, forgetting his manners upon seeing how bad off her leg really was.  
The girl looked at him for a long moment before she frowned and started limping down the street again. Nigel took the car out of park and let it follow her down the street.  
"You really shouldn't be walking on that leg, can I give you a ride?" He asked. The girl stopped again and bent down to give him an incredulous look through the window.  
"Ah... Yes, I can see how this situation may be misconstrued. But I assure you that really isn't the case." Nigel replied.  
"Who're you?" The girl asked.  
"Nigel Ratburn. I'm a teacher at the elementary school." The girl seemed to recognize the name, realization trickled down her face.  
"You're Arthur's teacher," She said. "He complains about you a lot you know."  
"Arthur Read, yes he's one of my students." It took a moment for Nigel to connect the dots, but it dawned on him who this girl was.  
"You're the girl the Reads took in." He reasoned aloud.  
"Um... yeah." The girl confirmed.  
"What was your name again?" Nigel asked. A fly flew in the window and started buzzing in his face just as he did. He swatted at it distractedly.  
"...gail Johnson." The girl replied.  
"Gale! What a charming name," He beamed a smile at her, which was rewarded by a completely shocked look on her part. He stopped smiling and coughed awkwardly.  
"The Read residence isn't out of my way at all. I can give you a lift." He insisted. Gale gave him another wary look, but after a moment she sighed in concession.  
"The bike should fit in the back seat, let me help."

It only took a moment to get the bike in the car and Gale situated in the front seat, sitting on a towel so she wouldn't get blood on the seat. Now that she wasn't walking she looked considerably more tired. She was already very pale and looked like she might pass out at any moment.  
The ride to the Reads was uneventful. It only took a few minutes and Gale managed to stay awake for most of it, clearly too tense from being in a strangers car to fall asleep. Once the Read house was finally in sight she sighed and conked out almost immediately.  
"Oh dear," Nigel sighed. He pulled into the driveway and shut the engine off. He looked down at her leg again and made the decision.  
She needed to go to the hospital anyway, so waking her up just to drag her into the house and then back out into the Read's car seemed pointless. He got out of the car as quietly as he could and knocked on the door.  
Arthur answered the door and looked more horrified than Nigel thought was strictly necessary.  
"Mr. Ratburn," Arthur said, recovering rather quickly. "What...?" He clearly didn't know how to finish that sentence.  
"Are either of your parents home?" Nigel asked, helping the conversation along. He knew that Jane, at least, was home because of the car in the driveway.  
"I'm not in trouble am I?" Arthur asked. An irrational assumption given that it was still the middle of summer vacation. He felt the need to point this out.  
"Arthur, it's summer." Nigel sighed in amused exasperation.  
"Oh... right." Arthur giggled nervously. "I'll go get Mom." He mumbled quickly as he turned to go back into the house.  
"Nigel, hello." Jane said as she came from the kitchen. "Would you like to come in?"  
"No, I'm actually here about Gale." He gestured back to his car. "She seems to have been in some sort of accident on her bicycle."  
"Gale...?" Jane asked. She started out to the car anyway. "You mean Abigail." She realized as she got a clear look into the passengers seat.  
She opened the passenger side door slowly and her eyes widened when she got a look at Gale - Abigail's leg.  
"Oh my." She said softly. She looked back to Nigel.  
"I don't think we really need to wake her up just yet. She clearly needs to go to the hospital and I'll gladly give her a ride, but you should probably follow in your car."  
Jane nodded in agreement all through that statement.  
"I'll get the kids and I'll follow you. Just give me a few minutes." Jane confirmed.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I was going to continue this chapter into the hospital, but changed my mind. So... yeah.


	7. Chapter 6: The Hospital

**Author's Note:** If Abigail's response to a bike crash seems a little weird then... I dunno. I base how she acted on the way I act after crashing my bike spectacularly. Which I have done several times in my life and so I'm very well acquainted with how my body reacts to such stimulus.  
Basically it goes like this: I don't feel anything (much) for a bit and in that time I try to hobble home. Then I start feeling the pain (and start crying usually but that's just me), and then once I'm 'safe' I get really tired and fall asleep. Muscle failure is predictable as well, once the muscle cools It gets really stiff and moving it is next to impossible.

* * *

Chapter 6: The Hospital

"Abigail," Jane shook her. "Abigail, we're at the hospital, you have to get up for a moment."  
Abigail groaned as her eyes opened and focused on her, she winced.  
"Don't wanna get up," she complained. "Leg's stiff, and hurts." She added, just in case they didn't realize.  
"Nigel, do you think you can carry her?" Jane asked.  
"Not unless she turns around, if I tried to pick her up on the right side it would aggravate the gash." He replied. Abigail groaned and started to get up, lifting her leg out of the car slowly.  
"Here, let me." Nigel said once Abigail was standing up. Jane let go of Abigail's arms and moved out of the way.

Abigail yelped in surprise as Mr. Ratburn wrapped an arm around her back and lifted both of her legs into his other arm. Her arms flailed for a moment before she had enough sense to grab at his shoulders.  
If she hadn't been awake before, she was now.  
Being more awake made her look around to take in her surroundings. Arthur and D.W. were standing behind Mrs. Read looking bored and a little disturbed. Arthur was staring at her leg in morbid fascination. D.W. was looking anywhere but, preferring to keep her head angled down to her mother's feet. Mrs. Read herself was eying her with worry, surveying her up and down and frowning with worry.  
The attention was odd, she squirmed a little under the scrutiny. This made her entire body shift a little and she ended up leaning more heavily into Mr. Ratburn's chest.  
Mr. Ratburn's arms tensed a little.  
"Don't squirm or I'll drop you," He warned. He gave Jane a nod and started towards the door.

The inside of the hospital was cold. Abigail hadn't been in a lot of hospitals, but she was pretty sure she didn't like them much. They were always sort of cold.  
Jane was hovering around the side of the table Abigail was on. She'd sent Arthur and D.W. to the waiting room.  
"We'll have this fixed up in no time. It'll probably take... oh, I dunno, 5 to 7 stitches. The knee is strained pretty bad, you should stay off of it for the next week." The doctor informed them.  
Mr. Ratburn knocked politely at the door and peeked his head into the doorway.  
"Jane, an orderly is watching over Arthur and D.W. now." He said. He stepped into the room. "How are you doing Gale?" He asked, looking closely at the leg.  
The wound was clean now, it had had little bits of tree bark in it before, and they'd cleaned up all her scratches as well. It almost looked worse when you could see how deep it was. Her entire leg was very red and bruises were starting to develop all around her knee. Luckily they'd also numbed it in preparation of the stitches, so Abigail didn't have to think about it much.  
"I'm doing okay I guess," Abigail shrugged. "It's not the most comfortable I've ever been but..." She gave a wry smile and was pleased to see Mr. Ratburn smile back.  
"Well, now that you're all taken care of I really should be leaving. I've got plans for this evening that I don't want to be late for." Mr. Ratburn said. "You don't need anything else do you?" He asked Jane.  
"No. Thank you again Nigel, for driving Abigail over here. Especially when you didn't have to." Jane replied.  
"It was no trouble," He assured. "Goodbye Jane, Goodbye Gale." He waved a bit and then left.  
"Bye!" Abigail and Jane chorused as he left.  
There was silence in the room for a moment before Jane's thought apparently gathered and she turned to Abigail.  
"Why didn't you correct him when he called you Gale?" She asked.  
"What?" Abigail asked. "Oh... umm, I dunno. It didn't seem all that important. He seemed to really like the name Gale."  
"Would you like for everyone to call you Gale?" Jane asked.  
"No," Abigail said quickly. "But I don't mind if he wants to." She added quietly, after a moments pause.  
Jane smiled. She looked like she was about to say something but just then Arthur peeked into the room.  
"Arthur, is something wrong?" Jane asked.  
"No, it's just..." Arthur paused a moment. "Can I watch them sew up the cut?" He asked hopefully.  
Jane gave him a disapproving and curious look.  
"I suppose if Abigail doesn't mind..." Jane hedged.  
Arthur came into the room and looked at Abigail hopefully.  
"Can I?" He asked. Abigail shrugged.  
"I don't see why not." Abigail answered. "It's not like they're doing anything invasive." She told Jane.  
A doctor came into the room carrying a tray with an impressive looking needle and thread and all the other equipment.  
"Are we ready to get started?" He asked as he pulled a tray table and stool up next to the bed.  
"I'm not going to feel this, right?" Abigail asked again.  
"Everyone who comes in needing stitches asks that," the doctor laughed. "I promise you won't feel a thing."  
"Where's D.W.?" Jane asked, realizing she wasn't with Arthur.  
"I left her with Jake. He's the orderly that was watching us." Arthur said. Jane gave a worried frown.  
"I should probably go get her, you'll be fine starting this without me won't you?" Jane asked Abigail.  
"Yeah, go ahead." Abigail waved her off.  
The doctor nodded towards Jane and she left to go get D.W.  
"Alright then, lets get started shall we?" The doctor said as he sat down and put on his gloves. Abigail made a noise of agreement that ended up being more of a squeak. The doctor gave her a reassuring smile and she just leaned back onto the bed and closed her eyes, trusting that the numbing agent would make sure she couldn't feel what was going on.

Jane found D.W. sitting as quietly as she possibly could next to a bored looking orderly. She couldn't help the surprise on her face, normally D.W. would have driven that man up the wall and back before now.  
"D.W., didn't you want to come in and sit with Abigail?" She asked as she sat down next to D.W. She gave the orderly consent to leave with a wave and a nod of acknowledgement.  
D.W. fidgeted and frowned a little.  
"She's not... still yucky is she?" D.W. sounded very uncomfortable. Jane smiled a little, understanding why D.W. was so quiet.  
"Blood makes a lot of people uncomfortable." Jane replied. "I'm sure Abigail doesn't mind that you wanted to wait to see her."  
"Okay," D.W. said. "But it's all gone now, right? She's not still bloody?" D.W. asked again.  
"No, they cleaned her up. She's getting that big cut on her leg sewn up right now." Jane replied.  
"Sewn? Like with a needle?" D.W. asked, frowning.  
"Yes." Jane answered.  
"Ewww," D.W. buried her face into her mother's stomach. "I don't want to see that." She whined, muffled by Jane's sweater.  
"That's fine. It'll only take a few minutes. We'll go see her when it's all done." Jane rubbed D.W.'s head.  
D.W. nodded, not taking her head out of her mother's sweater just yet.

~*~*~*~*That Evening*~*~*~*~

"I got it, I got it." Abigail said as she hobbled up the sidewalk to the door. She grabbed hold of Jane's shoulder as a balance as she struggled to keep the weight off of her knee.  
D.W. was still rather preoccupied with the stitches on Abigail's leg. She hadn't believed Abigail when she said it hadn't hurt, and she was looking fairly convinced that that was Abigail was limping and that it had nothing to do with her knee.  
"Clear the way," Jane said to D.W. and Arthur, who were being slightly underfoot. Arthur went and opened the door for them.  
Abigail finally got inside the house and sat down on the couch. She propped her leg up on one of the cushions and sighed.  
"You'll probably have to sleep on the couch tonight, I don't know how you'd get up to your room." Jane said.  
Abigail screwed her face up in annoyance.  
"It's only for tonight, I'm sure you'll be able to make it to your room just fine tomorrow." Jane replied.  
Abigail slid down the couch and put the other cushion behind her head.  
"I'm glad they let me come home, staying overnight in the hospital would have been such a pain." Abigail said as she stretched and closed her eyes.

She didn't notice Jane grinning at her.  
And even if she had, she was too tired to have realized it was because she'd called the Read house 'home' for the first time since she got there.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I'll leave this one at that then I guess.


	8. Chapter 7: The Brain

**Author's Note:** Can't resist putting in my favorite kid character. Sorry if this story arc seems... way too weird.

* * *

Chapter 7: The Brain

Abigail, being stuck in the house due to injury, decided that she might as well get started on her academic pursuits. The idea didn't really appeal to her, but she could only lay in bed so long before boredom inspired her to do something useful. Apparently 3 days was her limit.  
She set herself up in the armchair in the living room. She laid her study booklets out on the end table, got herself a drink, and propped her leg up comfortably on the ottoman. After squirming and putting it off for a few minutes she was able to get her mind into the task.

Not too long after she'd gotten started did the doorbell ring.  
"I've got it!" Arthur said, bounding down the stairs and across the room. He flung the door open.  
Brain was standing in the doorway, a sleeping bag under one arm and a dufflebag hanging off his shoulder. Abigail vaguely recalled hearing Arthur ask his parents yesterday if Brain could stay over. Abigail glanced at the door, now sufficiently distracted, and was caught off guard by the look on the kids face. He had bags under his eyes and looked very strung out. The look was very familiar, when she lived in Akron a lot of the younger kids sometimes got the same look in their eyes. It looked peculiar on him though.  
"Come on, lets put your stuff upstairs." Arthur said, taking the dufflebag.  
"Thanks for letting me stay over Arthur." Brain replied. "Mom and Dad..." He hesitated. "Never mind."  
Arthur gave him a confused look but didn't ask and questions. They headed upstairs.  
They came downstairs quickly after, it was almost for Bionic Bunny.  
"Abigail, I have to take D.W. to her gymnastics class. You'll be okay down here by yourself right?" Mrs. Read asked, coming into the room with D.W. in tow.  
Abigail gave her a puzzled look.  
"Umm... I guess so." Abigail agreed. Mrs. Read gave a grateful smile.  
"Thanks so much. Now, David is upstairs if you absolutely need him. But he only takes one day off a week and he's probably going to be asleep the entire time I'm gone. So if there's an emergency don't hesitate to wake him up, but otherwise can you try to be really quiet when you go upstairs?" She addressed the last bit to Arthur specifically, but all of them nodded.  
"I wouldn't worry too much, you'll only be gone for a couple hours." Abigail assured.  
Mrs. Read said her goodbyes and escorted D.W. out the door.  
Abigail sort of goggled at the responsibility Mrs. Read had just trusted her with. It wasn't that big a deal she supposed, with Mr. Read still upstairs, but it still seemed like a big deal.  
Then again she could just be trusting that Abigail was injured enough that she couldn't get into too much trouble or do anything outrageous in the time allotted. Or that Arthur would snitch on her if she did.  
Arthur and Brain had gone very still once they were all alone in the room. They looked at her expectantly and Abigail just raised an eyebrow at them.  
"What?" She asked. "Watch your cartoon." She added before they could actually answer. They turned on the TV without a word and she turned back to her books. After the Bionic Bunny theme started up she tuned out the TV and started studying again.  
"What are you doing?" a voice interrupted her. She looked up and saw the TV was on a commercial and that Brain was looking at her curiously. Arthur seemed to be missing, but she heard something in the kitchen and figured it was him.  
"I'm studying for the placement test I have to take next month." Abigail answered. Brain tensed noticeably and Abigail blinked in confusion.  
Abigail was going to ask about it, but Arthur suddenly came back into the room with a bowl of popcorn and the Bionic Bunny eyecatch came on the screen.  
After that Abigail frowned and decided she probably couldn't concentrate after that. She sighed quietly and picked up another booklet in hopes of trying again with a different subject.  
"You got a lot of these wrong." Brain's voice said, interrupting her again. She looked up to find him leafing through the science booklet. He was frowning at the pages.  
"I've never been that good at science." Abigail replied distractedly. She turned her attention back to her lap and then looked up in confusion.  
"How do you know they're wrong?" She asked.  
Brain shut the booklet quickly and turned pink.  
"Brain is super smart." Arthur answered for him. "He's never wrong about anything like that." He added, as if that should just explain everything.  
Abigail watched Brain put the booklet back on the end table sheepishly. He looked so distinctly uncomfortable that Abigail just let the subject drop.

Mrs. Read and D.W. got back a couple hours later, and not too long after that Mr. Read eventually got up and started dinner. Arthur and Brain had disappeared upstairs a while ago, for some reason or another, and didn't show any sign of coming back down on their own.  
Abigail was finally able to get some studying done in the time between Arthur going upstairs and dinner being served, but she couldn't say whether or not it had been particularly constructive. She never did feel like she was learning anything.  
When dinner was ready Arthur and Brain did finally come out of his room, looking vaguely like someone had died. They sat down at the table without saying anything. Abigail wasn't the only one who noticed. Mr. and Mrs. Read were both looking at Brain very carefully, trying to determine what might be wrong.  
"So Alan, how are your parents?" Mrs. Read asked.  
Abigail didn't fully realize who Mrs. Read was talking to until Brain looked up from his plate suddenly. It dawned on her then that Brain was, of course, not his real name. Duh.  
"They're... fine." Brain answered, his voice a little higher than normal. He stuck a piece of beef in his mouth, probably in hopes of avoiding more questions.  
Abigail frowned. She didn't like the signs she was seeing. Brain was jumpy, stressed out looking, didn't want to stay at home for some reason he didn't want to talk about, and he didn't want to talk about his parents...  
Abigail chokes on the water she'd been sipping at. After a small coughing fit she noticed everyone at the table looking at her.  
"Are you alright Abigail?" Mr. Read asked.  
"Fine." She croaked, coughing slightly again.  
She smiled weakly.

* * *

**Author's Note:** This is short, but I've got the next chapter mostly written and this seemed like a good place to stop this one.

**RushMaiden** - OMG! It's an actual review! I don't know what to say! I'm glad you liked it enough to actually say something about it. A lot of people are reading it. But I haven't gotten any feedback at all, so I can't tell what anyone actually thinks of it. It's sort of discouraging.


	9. Chapter 8: Brain's Problem

**Author's Note:** Umm... yeah, okay. If I start saying anything about this chapter I'm going to try to explain all of it. So since I've decided to not go into over justification mode you're just going to to have to accept this chapter as is.  
Lots of content in this chapter. For me anyway.

* * *

Chapter 8: Brain's Problem

Abigail, upon getting a grip on her imagination, decided her initial impressions were probably wrong. No kid whose ever been hit regularly could be as cheerful as he'd been when she first met him in the Sugar Bowl almost two months ago. And he was showing the wrong sort of signs for it to be a recent development. At least she thought so...  
Maybe she should bring the subject up with Mrs. Read just in case?  
Abigail stressed herself out all that evening wondering about it. As she packed her books up and hobbled up to her bedroom she looked at Brain as closely as she could without suspicion. He and Arthur were discussing something in whispers near Arthur's doorway. Whatever was bothering him, Arthur clearly knew about it, and Arthur seemed sensible enough to not keep that kind of thing from his parents... she hoped.  
Abigail sighed in frustration and went to bed, determined not to worry about it, because did she really need to?

~*~*~*~*That Didn't Work*~*~*~*~

Abigail rolled over sometime around midnight with a groan. She grabbed the glass on her nightstand and found it empty. She sighed. After a short debate over the merits of actually going down stairs to get some water she decided that she WAS thirsty enough to bother. She crawled out of bed and lowered the ladder as quietly as possible.  
When she got down to the 2nd level she turned around and spotted something that was both worrisome and annoying. Brain was sitting at the top of the stairs, looking half asleep and really miserable. She was willing to bet he'd heard her just fine. So he was either unconcerned about being up this late or he wanted to be called out on it. If it was the latter then it was probably because he wanted to talk to someone.  
Abigail looked at her glass in contemplation. She almost just went to the bathroom to get her water and not bothered. But that niggling fear that she was right earlier made her act. She wanted to be sure.  
Abigail sat her glass down on one of the ladder steps and went to sit down on the stairs next to him.  
Brain didn't move for a little bit, but then he looked at her. She sighed, wondering if this was really worth the trouble. She decided to cut to the chase.  
"It's not really any of my business, and you don't know me very well. But..." Abigail sighed and scratched her neck. She hoped the gesture came across more 'I'm tired' and less 'This is awkward'.  
"You've obviously got some sort of big problem, and if you want to talk about... I'll listen."  
Abigail felt stupid for offering. It was the sort of thing counselors had always said, the idea being that an unintimidating ear would be inviting. But the problem was that the counselors were really an authority figure, just masquerading under the guise of someone who couldn't really effect change. You learned not to trust them rather fast once your problems were out in the open for all the adults to discuss.  
Brain looked at her carefully, as if weighing the risk of saying anything to her. Abigail did her best to look unassuming. She wasn't a peer exactly, and she wasn't old enough to be an authority figure, so she was out of both of the groups kids might not want to discuss anything uncomfortable with. Brain finally relented.  
In retrospect Abigail had to admit that this was really... not the kind of problem she was expecting.

Brain fidgeted, looking at Abigail out of the corner of his eyes.  
He'd actually been trying to get up the nerve to go down and talk to Mr. Read. He knew that Mr. Read stayed up late at night working in the kitchen and Brain had stayed up late specifically to try and talk to him. But he hadn't been able to work up the nerve before Abigail had come down.  
When Abigail offered to listen part of him was very relieved. She knew right away that something was wrong, so he didn't have to answer that question that her always hated to hear, 'Is there something wrong?'. She also wasn't looking at him like whatever his problem was it couldn't be as big as any of hers. Adults always encouraged you to talk about your problems, but they always had that condescending look on their face whenever you approached them with one. He hadn't been looking forward to interrupting Mr. Read because he was sure he'd get that look.  
So Brain decided he would talk to Abigail about it. She probably couldn't help, but Mr. Read probably wouldn't have been able to either.  
"I... um," Brain started. "The last few months of school I was having trouble paying attention in class. That's sort of normal for students who aren't being challenged academically." Brain explained.  
Abigail rolled her eyes and waved him on, leaning her elbows on her knees once she knew he was going to talk. He probably hadn't needed to explain that, he realized.  
"Anyway, I was still getting good grades, but Mr. Ratburn said he was concerned and talked to my parents." Brain went on. "So my father went in and there was a lot of talking, I don't really remember a lot about what they said, but by the end of the meeting Mr. Ratburn said he was going to set up a testing schedule this summer to test my academic level."  
"Test anxiety?" Abigail asked incredulously.  
"No." Brain said quickly, annoyed to be interrupted. She raised a hand in apology.  
"Sorry, sorry." She said quickly. "Continue."  
"The problem isn't that I was scared of the testing. I've already had the tests." Brain said in reply.  
"How'd-?" Abigail bit her tongue mid question.  
"I did really well." Brain answered with a miserable sigh.  
"And that's... bad?" Abigail questioned, sounding unconvinced.  
"The idea of the testing," Brain pressed on. "Was to find where in the K-12 range I was. So they gave me a lot of different level proficiency tests and didn't tell me which ones they were."  
Abigail honestly couldn't figure out the source of the stress in all of this.  
"I... didn't get any of the questions wrong." Brain said softly. For something that would normally seem like a boast he sounded very miserable about it.  
"Did you find out what level they were testing you at?" Abigail asked.  
"All of them." Brain replied.  
For most of this conversation Brain had been looking at his knees or his feet, but after Abigail had been quiet for a long moment after this revelation her looked over at her.  
Abigail had sat up straight and was staring at him in disbelief. He vaguely recalled the guy who had run the test results having the same expression. He sighed.  
"How old are you again?" Abigail asked as she recovered. To her credit it took her a lot less time than it had anyone else.  
"I'll be 10 in October." Brain answered.  
"So, what does it mean for you in general? To have passed all these tests I mean?" Abigail asked, hitting on the problem without knowing it.  
"I don't know." Brain said. "No one seems to know what to do."  
"Your parents have been fighting about it haven't they? That's why you don't want to stay at home." Abigail said, sounding relieved.  
Brain frowned at her in confusion. Abigail coughed awkwardly.  
"That's not a good thing!" Brain protested, rather loudly. Abigail cringed and shushed him. Brain flinched and paused, hoping he hadn't woken anyone up.  
"That's not a good thing!" Brain tried again, this time in a harsh whisper. Abigail shook her head.  
"I didn't mean that the way it came out." She said in a whisper as well. "I was just worried it was was something else, I'm glad I was wrong." She added.  
Brain frowned again but didn't want to get distracted.  
"I thought that these tests would just take me up a grade or two, since I was held back before that would have been okay. But now Dad's talking about taking me out of school all together and hiring a private tutor and Mom is talking about trying to get me into online college courses and then they told Mr. Ratburn and he's got all these suggestions and I don't WANT to take Calculus, I'm so bad at it!" Brain said, getting perilously close to hysteria.  
Abigail grabbed onto one of his shoulders and he jumped.  
"Okay, okay. I think I get whats going on." Abigail said. "But what's the real trouble? Why are you so upset?" She asked.  
Brain looked at her in shock. Could she really not see why this was terrible?  
Abigail rolled her eyes and gave him an exasperated look.  
"Bear with me." Abigail said. "I clearly don't have all the details."  
Brain nodded.  
"So, you clearly like being smart, right?" Abigail asked. "You wouldn't have the nickname 'The Brain' if you didn't." She reasoned.  
"Actually that's Francine's fault. I kept getting all the answers right in 2nd grade and she made up the nickname to tease me."  
"You wouldn't have put up with it if you didn't like it, would you?" Abigail asked.  
"I've always liked school and studying and things like that." Brain agreed.  
"Then why does this really bug you so much? This is just taking that interest to the next level isn't it?" Abigail asked.  
"No it's not. I won't be in school anymore. I won't be around my friends anymore."  
Abigail gave a frustrated sigh. He could tell that she wasn't really getting the problem.  
"What did Arthur say when you told him all that?" Abigail asked.  
"I didn't tell him the whole thing. Just that my parents think I'm too smart to go into 4th grade and that I might get pulled out of school." Brain said.  
Abigail frowned at him.  
"He already knows you're smart. Smart enough to correct High School level science anyway. Why didn't you want him to know?"  
"It's one thing to know your friend is really smart. It's different to know that they're so smart they shouldn't even be going to school with you." Brain mumbled.  
"So you're hoping that your parents will let you go back to school. That's why you didn't tell him about the tests?" Abigail asked.  
"I guess so..." Brain answered. He didn't sound very sure.  
Abigail sat up straight again, looking pretty sure of herself.  
"Ahh..." She said, sounding like she figured it out. "This isn't really about the tests or the prospect of home schooling is it? I mean, you're worried about that, but you're more scared about losing your friends." She said softly, trying to sound sympathetic.

At this little revelation Brain's calm front finally broke. He didn't start crying... exactly. But his face screwed up like he wanted to. This startled Abigail so much that when he lunged at her and buried his face in her shoulder she nearly toppled over. She had to listen closely to hear what he was saying since it was muffled by her pajama-top, but he clearly wasn't done talking.  
"If I don't go to school with everyone else then I won't be allowed on any of the school teams, and I won't be taking any of the same tests, and I won't hear about anything they're doing after school!" Brain howled. "They won't have any reason to hang out with me anymore." He mumbled.  
Abigail couldn't be sure, but if she had to guess she'd say he was probably having visions of being behind that counter at the Sugar Bowl and all his friends coming in sometime next year having completely forgotten about him in the few months that they hadn't seen him in school.  
Abigail shook her head and sighed, wrapping her arms around the kid now attached to her front. He started crying in earnest then.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I was going to go on... but I decided this chapter was long enough, and that seemed like a good stopping place.


	10. Chapter 9: And then

**Author's Note:** It's come to my attention that I've got some of the canon completely wrong in the last chapter. Brain's mom does not, in fact, own the Sugar Bowl. She owns a different Ice Cream shop all together. My bad. But I'm not going to change it. One, because I'm too lazy to rewrite, and Two, because I like the idea that he works at the Sugar Bowl better. Mostly because the gang is ALWAYS going to the Sugar Bowl and so for some reason having Brain work behind the counter there just seems more satisfying.  
So... yeah.

* * *

Chapter 9: And then...

David finished up the last of the dessert orders for tomorrow (or today rather) and stretched in satisfaction. It was just after 2AM, he'd finished early.  
David pulled off his taupe and apron and killed the lights in the kitchen. He started up the stairs to bed.  
It was dark in on the stairs and David was tired, so he didn't spot the obstacle at the top.  
"Ow!" Said whatever he tripped over. David caught himself as he slipped down a couple of steps.  
David clenched his teeth to prevent yelling out. He squinted up the stairs to ascertain was he had tripped over. As his eyes adjusted a bundle of limbs at the top of the stairs came into focus.  
Abigail was clutching her leg, which was probably what he'd tripped over given how she was sitting, and piled mostly into her lap an only just waking up was Alan.  
"What are you two doing out here?" David asked, bemused and a little annoyed.  
Abigail scowled at him, still rubbing her leg.  
"We were talking and ended up falling asleep." She explained. David waited for more, but that seemed to be all she was going to say.  
Alan slid out of Abigail's lap and rubbed at his eyes. David couldn't quite tell, but it sort of looked like he'd been crying.  
Oh.  
It hadn't gone past unnoticed to him or Jane that Arthur's friend was clearly troubled all that afternoon. They had had a heated discussion, in whispers, that evening about pulling him aside and asking what was wrong. It had taken a lot of debate, but they had decided against it. Alan was a very sensible young man who often asked advice of any and every adult who would listen to his problems, he really liked an adult sounding board for some reason. So if he thought he needed advice he would generally seek out someone on his own.  
Whatever it was that was bothering him must have played itself out up here in the middle of the night. He'd have to ask Abigail about it.  
"Well, get to bed then." David said finally, after picking himself up off the stairs.  
Alan and Abigail both got up, Abigail stumbling a little more than she had been earlier. It occurred to him that he'd tripped over her already injured leg.  
"I'm sorry, you're leg is alright isn't it?" David asked.  
"It's fine, you didn't really hurt it much. It's a bit stiff though." Abigail answered. She turned her attention to Alan, who was standing there sort of awkwardly.  
David gaped a bit when Alan smiled at her and she smiled back and waved him off. What was that all about?  
"Umm... Goodnight Mr. Read." Brain said, and quickly retreated to Arthur's room as quietly as possible.  
Once Alan was securely behind Arthur's door David looked at Abigail.  
Abigail crossed her arms and waited for him to say something.  
David thought about it, not entirely sure what he wanted to ask.  
"It wasn't anything serious, was it?" He thought that was a good middle ground.  
Abigail shook her head.  
"No." Abigail answered. "He's just feeling a little insecure."  
David nodded expectantly. Abigail hedged, probably thinking about how much to tell.  
"He's really smart, and his parents are thinking maybe he needs to be in home school instead. He's just worried none of his friends will like him if that happens." Abigail said. It was clearly a summary, but it was good enough.  
"And what did you say?" David asked. Abigail shrugged.  
"I didn't say anything." She replied. "I think he just wanted to tell someone about it."  
David considered this with a frown.  
"You should have said something." He decided out loud. Abigail shook her head at that.  
"I couldn't have said anything that he would have believed without hearing it from one of his friends." She reasoned. "He's got to bring it up with one of them. I know he's already told Arthur something about the situation, I think they'll figure it out on their own."  
David didn't know if he was just too tired to find fault or if the reasoning was just really sound.  
He'd have to think about it tomorrow.

~*~*~*~*Next Day*~*~*~*~

By the time David had woken up the next day everything seemed to have been settled already.  
Alan seemed to have talked to Arthur sometime that morning already because David kept catching little bits of conversation between him and Arthur. Most of which consisted of disbelief on Arthur's part that David didn't fully understand.  
"You really passed ALL of them?" Arthur would ask.  
"Yes." Alan would reply, he'd answered variations of this question several times during the day. He looked rather relieved that Arthur found this to be the 'coolest and most amazing' thing ever, so even though he'd answered so many times he always sighed in relief when Arthur always replied with some sort of awed expression.

"Wait 'til we tell everyone else, no one is going to believe it." Arthur said.  
"You _really_ don't think it's weird?" Brain asked, moving his checker piece halfheartedly.  
"No." Arthur answered simply. Then he smiled. "Now if it had been Buster..." He trailed off with a smirk.  
Brain didn't feel much like laughing, but smiled at the joke anyway. He sighed.  
"Francine is going to make fun of me." Brain said matter-of-fact in a worried voice.  
"Francine makes fun of everybody. She never really means it." Arthur replied. Brain didn't look all that reassured. Arthur moved one of his checkers and looked at Brain.  
"Does it bug you to be so much smarter than we are?" Arthur asked.  
Brain, who had been inspecting the checkerboard, straightened up and looked at him in surprise.  
"What?" He asked Arthur in disbelief.  
"I mean, I hear you talking to adults sometimes and you talk about things that I can't understand at all. Don't you sort of wish that you hung out with people you could talk like that with all the time?" Arthur asked again.  
The expression on Brain's face sort of looked like he was choking on something, so Arthur assumed he was right and Brain just didn't want to say it. Arthur was just about to open his mouth and retract his question when Brain answered.  
"No, I don't care about that. To tell you the truth I'm sort of scared that none of you are going to want to hang out with me anymore. I mean... after school starts again." Brain answered meekly.  
"Why would you think that?" Arthur didn't sound mad, but he wanted to know.  
"I dunno..." Brain answered uncertainly. "It's just that everything we do together is centered around school, unless I'm the one who says I want to come over or go do something. If I get pulled out of school..." Brain stopped and sighed. He looked at the checkerboard and jumped three of Arthur's pieces. Arthur frowned at the board.  
"Don't be ridiculous, who else am I going to get to beat me at checkers?" Arthur asked wryly, looking dourly at the checkerboard.  
Despite the sarcastic nature of the answer, Brain had to admit it was sort comforting.

* * *

**Author's Note:** That's not exactly how I meant to do that last scene... but whatever.  
Maybe I'll take a break from this story. It doesn't seem to be keeping my interest very much and I haven't been getting enough indication that people like it enough for me to plow through until my interest picks up again.  
I'll probably pick it up again later, but I'm not going to rush myself.


	11. Chapter 10: Cake

**Author's Note:** Okay, fine. More inspiration hit. Apparently I can't promise anything with my fanfics, even when I say I'm going to take a hiatus I go back on it. Geez... Never take my word on ANYTHING I say in these Notes. EVER!

* * *

Chapter 10: Cake

Abigail examined the bandage on her leg where her stitches had been. It still itched.  
"I never thanked Mr. Ratburn." Abigail mused aloud on the ride home from the hospital.  
Jane quirked her head a little at that.  
"Didn't you?" She asked.  
Abigail shrugged.  
"Well, a cursory thank you, yeah." Abigail consented. "But that's not _really_ a thank you. That's just something you say at the time."  
Abigail could walk straight again and most of the scrapes were finally off her leg and elbow. So she was feeling more herself. She was even considering getting back on the bike... maybe. Well, if she stuck to the sidewalks for a little while she should be fine.  
"Anyway, he went out of his way to help, it seems like I should do something nice in return." Abigail said, getting her thoughts back on track.  
Jane bit her bottom lip to keep from smiling but Abigail noticed.  
"What?" Abigail asked.  
"Nothing." Jane assured quickly.  
Abigail frowned suspiciously at her, then crossed her arms defensively.  
"I just wanted to be nice." Abigail sulked.  
"Oh, of course," Jane corrected apologetically as she pulled into the driveway. Abigail rolled her eyes.  
"It's a really good idea." Jane encouraged as they came in the door.  
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Abigail said. "I'll write him a thank you note, or something."  
"Oh no, I'm sure we can think of something better than that." Jane protested as she hung her keys up on the peg.  
Abigail made an annoyed sound in the back of her throat.  
"What's this all about?" David asked, coming out of the kitchen and wiping his hands on a hand towel.  
Jane opened her mouth to respond but Abigail cut her off.  
"Nothing. She's just making a big deal out of nothing." Abigail insisted, then bolted upstairs as fast as her newly recovered legs could carry her.  
David gave Jane a bewildered look.  
"Should I reiterate the question?" He asked.  
Jane opened her mouth and closed it again before replying.  
"She just wants to do something nice for Nigel to thank him for helping her to the hospital last week." Jane explained.  
"Well, that's a nice idea." David said mildly, going back into the kitchen. Jane followed.  
"We could help." Jane suggested. She came up behind David, who was at the sink, wrapped her arms around him and set her chin on his shoulder.  
"Oh?" David asked, distracted from the dishes now.  
"Let's invite him to dinner. I mean... we should probably thank him too shouldn't we? He did let us know she was hurt." Jane nodded slowly.  
David turned around and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.  
"So he did." David agreed. "So, when is this dinner?" He asked.  
"Oh, I dunno. I should probably run it by Abigail first. Let her have some forewarning." Jane answered.  
David nodded. Then stopped.  
"_Warn_ Abigail?" He asked. He pondered that a minute and then the light dawned.  
"Oohhh..." David nodded. "Well that's adorable."

"You're inviting him over for dinner?" Abigail asked, looking up from her sketchbook.  
"It seemed like a good idea." Jane said mildly. "He's a good friend of David's, and we wanted to thank him too."  
Abigail just looked at her, holding off on being suspicious.  
"And, as he's coming over for dinner, we thought you might like to make the dessert." Jane added.  
Ah hah! Wait...  
"What?" Abigail asked.  
"Mr. Ratburn happens to really love cake. Making him a cake would be an excellent thank you gift." Jane assured her.  
Abigail contemplated this. It was a pretty good idea overall. Unobtrusive, easy, and she didn't have to go out of her way to track him down to give it to him and therefore look really _really_ weird.  
"Okay, I can make a cake." Abigail said. "Thanks for the suggestion." For the sake of her ego that was all the credit she was going to give Mrs. Read.  
Mrs. Read gave her a knowing smile anyway. It was very annoying.

Abigail opted to do the cake in the morning before Mr. Read woke up for the day, just because that seemed like it would be more convenient.  
D.W. was making her wish she'd waited until the afternoon when she was going to be out of the house.  
Nevermind the constant questions about what sort of cake she was making and if she could help, D.W. had nearly toppled the batter bowl twice and she'd broken three eggs.  
"D.W., this is supposed to be a thank you present. I should really be making it all by myself." Abigail had tried to reason.  
"But Daddy says that we should never try to cook without superfission." D.W. insisted.  
"Supervision, D.W." Abigail corrected. "And I'm pretty sure that that rule only applies to those of us under 12 years old." Abigail joked.  
"Oh." D.W. replied.  
Abigail finally got the batter into the oven and started to work on the icing.  
This drew slightly more attention as Arthur had smelled the cake starting to bake and decided to move his reading into the kitchen.  
As Abigail mixed the icing eyes strayed to the bowl hopefully.  
"You guys realize that bowl won't be available for scraping until the cake is cooled and ready to be iced, right?" Abigail asked.  
Arthur gave her a look that implied that he was above that sort of thing and had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.  
"Can I lick the spoon?" D.W. asked.  
"You got the last one!" Arthur whined, revealing his true motive.  
"But that was a cake DAD made. We should start over for Abigail's." D.W. insisted.  
"What? That doesn't make any sense." Arthur said.  
"Alright, alright!" Abigail interrupted before it turned into an 'is not, is too' fight. "Get me a quarter." She told them.  
Arthur pulled a quarter out of his pocket.  
"Thank you." Abigail took it out and flipped it. "Call it."  
"Heads." Arthur said.  
"Tails." D.W. said at the same time.  
Abigail caught it and put it on the back of her hand.  
"Tails." She said, showing it to them.  
Arthur groaned and D.W. cheered.  
"That means Arthur gets first dibs on the bowl though." Abigail added. Abigail pulled the spoon out of the icing and handed it to D.W.  
"Stay in the kitchen and don't make a mess." Abigail warned darkly.  
"So, when will the cake be done?" Arthur asked innocently.  
"It's for dinner tomorrow." Abigail replied, answering the real question. Arthur wilted a little and Abigail rolled her eyes at the pathetic display.

After a little while the cake was done and cooling on a rack on the counter while Abigail was cleaning the kitchen/keeping watch over them.  
David came downstairs looking very professional and only somewhat distracted. He was catering something at a big hotel today and only needed to get a few things before heading out. One of which was a hurried breakfast.  
He stopped in confusion upon seeing his children sitting sedately at the table, then spotted the cake on the counter with Abigail nearby and seemed to understand. He looked at his watch before opting for some toaster waffles and orange juice for breakfast. While waiting on the waffles he eyed the cake layers approvingly, they'd come out nicely.  
"You did a good job." David told Abigail.  
"Thanks." Abigail said. "When I lived with my grandmother she taught me how to bake."  
"I learned from my grandmother too." David remarked. "The cooking skills sort of skipped a generation in my family." He grabbed the waffles out of the toaster.  
"Dad, can we have cake today?" Arthur asked, whining only a little. "Please?"  
David thought about his schedule and sighed around his waffle.  
"Arthur, I just don't think I have time to make a cake today." He said apologetically.  
"But Abigail could make us one couldn't she?" Arthur asked.  
Abigail glared at him.  
"What makes you think I'm going to make you any cake, brat?" Abigail ruffed Arthur's head.  
David chuckled.  
"If you can convince her to do it then yes, she can." David told Arthur in amusement.  
David looked at his watch and jumped a little.  
"I'm going to be late." He said suddenly. "I gotta go."  
D.W stood up on the chair and put her arms out. David, even distracted and in a hurry, knew the cue.  
Rather swiftly he hugged D.W. and kissed her cheek, he pulled back and ruffled Arthur's hair, and put a hand on Abigail's shoulder and pecked her on the cheek just like he had D.W. before disappearing out the door.  
Abigail scratched her cheek where he'd kissed it and turned back to the table.  
"I'm not making you a cake." Abigail said seriously. Arthur and D.W. sagged in disappointment before Abigail dropped the other shoe.  
"But if your Mom agrees, I could be convinced to make a batch of cookies." Abigail said lightly.  
"Mom!" Arthur and D.W. were out the door of the kitchen like lightening.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Yeah, okay, I was gonna pull this out into a longer chapter... but then decided not to. Nyah nyah.

I'm in need of reader opinion. Should I repeat the 3rd grade in this one? Notsomuch making it a time loop or anything, just one repetition of the weird time loop the Arthur universe is in, then continuing onto the 4th and such?  
Actually, since I'm probably not going to get any answers from this I'm probably just going to do a repeat of the 3rd grade simply because I want to. So... whatever.  
If I get a lot of negative feedback on the idea I won't do it.


	12. Chapter 11: The Dinner Part 1

**Author's Note:** Ooof! So much to say, so much to say... Ah well. Lets just get on with the chapter first shall we?  
I've changed up the formatting for your convenience. The other just didn't look at tidy and someone complained it was hard to read.

* * *

Chapter 11: The Dinner

Abigail looked at herself in the mirror critically. She'd gone through a dozen outfits but she didn't really like any of them. Half of them were too juvenile and the other half seemed too suggestive. But finally she had found an outfit that seemed decent. A light blue skirt that ended just above the knee and a fitted, black, T-shirt that advertised one of her favorite bands. She'd considered a blouse, but she didn't want to look like she'd dressed up for the occasion. It was just a dinner at home.

She descended the ladder and stairs to go help with the general preparations for dinner.

"Arthur, it's just a dinner." David said, sounding completely exasperated.

"I still can't believe he's coming to the house again." Arthur griped. "Couldn't you have just sent him a thank you note or something?"

"Don't be ungrateful Arthur. It was nice how he helped Abigail. Besides which he's a friend of ours, so be nice while he's here." Jane explained as she made sure the house was presentable for company.

"Bad attitude." Abigail said as she passed behind Arthur with a small vase made for a long stemmed flower. She'd made three origami lilies and put them in it. She was going to place it on the table.

"I do not have a bad attitude." Arthur insisted.

"Bad attitude!" Abigail singsonged from the kitchen. Arthur just sighed. He didn't think he had a bad attitude. He just... didn't care for his teacher visiting. It seemed reasonable enough to him.

Mr. Ratburn arrived at 5:30 on the dot.

"Punctual as always." Jane commented as she answered the door.

"Would you rather I be late? I could wait in the car..." He teased.

Abigail took this opportunity to take in his appearance from afar. He was wearing a yellow polo shirt and jeans. Her choice of outfit complimented his rather well, she noted with some satisfaction.

Jane and Nigel made there way to the living room where Arthur and D.W. Were sitting.

"Hi Mr. Ratburp." D.W. beamed up at him.

"Hello again D.W. How are you this evening?" Mr. Ratburn asked.

"I'm fine. But Arthur's been in a bad mood all day."

"I have not!" Arthur shouted, rather unconvincingly.

Jane just shook her head when Mr. Ratburn gave her a questioning look.

Abigail decided to make her entrance a little after that.

"David says that dinner will be ready in about 15 minutes." She informed the group. Technically he'd said that it'd be ready in 20, but that was about 5 minutes ago when she'd ACTUALLY left the kitchen.

"Hello again Gale. How's the leg?" Mr. Ratburn inquired. Abigail held the leg forward for inspection.

"Well... The doctor said that it'd probably scar, so clearly the tree won that round. But just wait until I go back with a pocket knife." Abigail delivered her well rehearsed witty line. She was rewarded with a chuckle from Mr. Ratburn.

"Scars add personality. They're part of what makes you an individual." Mr. Ratburn said.

"Mmm... I don't really think I needed any help with that. But it's a point of interest anyway." Abigail replied.

"Do you have any scars?" Abigail asked.

"Quite a few." He didn't expand on that answer.

Everyone had a seat to wait for David to call them into the kitchen for dinner.

"So, what are we having for dinner?" Mr. Ratburn questioned.

"David would just hate it if I ruined the surprise. You know how he is. But I can give you a hint: He's been on a southern cooking stint lately." Jane joked.

"_Not_ chitterlings?" Mr. Ratburn asked, his voice full of dread.

"Nonono. He saves _those_ experiments for family only. He'd hate for us to miss out after all." Jane answered. Arthur, D.W, and Abigail all gagged in unison.

"How fortunate." Mr. Ratburn replied. "For you." He added quickly.

Everyone stifled their laughter just in time as David strode out of the kitchen looking rather satisfied with himself.

"Dinner... is served." He announced rather triumphantly.

Over the few weeks that Abigail had spent with the Reads she'd come to the conclusion that David was a bit dramatic when it came to food preparation and all that entails. She had to assume that that had something to do with the catering and the fact that he actually went to college to become a chef... but it was still kind of silly.

They all gathered into the kitchen and settled in at the table.

"And for tonight's dinner we have..." David uncovered the dishes one by one. "Spinach, scalloped tomatoes, fried potatoes, and roast beef."

It looked delicious. It reminded Abigail of her grandmother. Abigail's grandmother had been born in Kentucky so Abigail had gotten food like this a lot when she was younger. She'd told David this when he'd first started this little stint and ever since he was determined to get her approval on at least one dish. He hadn't been doing a very good job.

David tended to over complicate them. Southern style cooking was supposed to be simple, without a whole lot of foreign ingredients. He didn't seem to get that, but the dishes themselves were very good anyway.

Nigel was eying the food on the table eagerly. It all looked wonderful, as always. As his eyes scoped the table they fell upon a small long stemmed vase. In it were three delicate flowers. Paper lilies, he realized.

"What charming origami." He commented spontaneously, which caused Gale to positively beam with delight.

"Abigail made them earlier today." Jane commented as she dished out a serving of spinach for D.W., who'd looked like she was trying to get out of it.

"They're lovely." Nigel complimented.

"Thank you." Gale replied, looking bashfully pleased.

"I've always rather liked origami. Though I've never been any good at it." Nigel confessed. Gale opened her mouth to say something but didn't get the chance.

"Oh, Abigail is talented in so many artist ways." Jane said this as if it'd been a surprising and pleasing discovery. Nigel supposed it must have been in some ways.

He remembered when Jane and David had called him to discuss their decision to take in a foster child. They'd asked the opinions of almost everyone in town. They'd worried over what they'd heard about the girl and whether or not they could really afford to do it. It wasn't until they'd had a talk with the woman that they'd done this as a favor to that they decided to go through with it.

They hadn't filled him in on all the details, of course, but he knew a little about how Gale had come to live with them. Caroline, Gale's social worker, was a friend of David's sister, Loretta, who lived in Ohio. Loretta had tentatively nominated them for the placement of Gale when she'd heard how heartbroken and troubled Caroline was over her particular case.

Gale certainly didn't seem like the troubled youth that had been the subject of much discussion among the community for weeks on end last year. She didn't seem to have a bad attitude about her. She also sat at the table in a mannerly fashion and engaged in conversation without looking like she had to fight debilitating boredom every step of the way, like some teenagers he'd had the pleasure of meeting.

_"Then again,"_ Nigel noted to himself _"One can't presume to judge on 'company manners' alone."_

It was then he realized that he hadn't had any long chats with David or Jane since Gale's arrival. They'd have to make the time to do that before the end of summer when he started getting busy again.

But for now there was this lovely dinner to look forward to...

* * *

**Author's Note:** Well, there's that then. I was going to make this longer, but I guess I'll just have to have a part two. I don't think anyone will mind. I promise I'll try to get it out in a more timely fashion.  
I've got to say, I'm astonished at how many people still read this even though I sort of let it idle for quite a bit. I guess Arthur isn't a fanfiction genre that gets a lot of traffic... Anyway, sorry to keep you guys waiting. And thank everyone so much for the reviews, it really means a lot.

**To Achilles** - You probably aren't even reading this fic anymore given the nature of your review. But all I've got to say is that you clearly didn't read the summary before starting and so I don't have a lot to offer you. Then again, even if you think that Abigail and Mr. Ratburn shouldn't get together now doesn't mean you might not change your mind later on. There's an awful lot of character growth planned before the relationship ever actually blooms.  
Also, you clearly have never wrecked on your bike spectacularly before or else you'd KNOW how Abigail could get so severely hurt by running into a tree. If you are going very fast on a bike and you side swipe a tree with a broken off branch I guarantee you, it'll bleed. And hurt. A lot. This comes from someone who has crashed in such a fashion and has a similar scar to show for it.


	13. Chapter 12: The Dinner Part 2

**Author's Note:** Some of you may or may not have noticed that I screwed up on the last chapter. But I fixed it. Blame the fact that I like to get these out in a hurry after I'm done with the first draft bit. Anyway, on with the chapter.

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Chapter 12: The Dinner Part 2

Arthur was baffled. He'd never seen anyone hang onto every word Mr. Ratburn was saying like that. Ever. Not even when there was a test coming up and everyone knew that what he was saying was going to be on it.

He wasn't saying anything all that interesting either. Abigail had asked him about his hobbies and so the topic at hand was marionettes and other sorts of puppetry. Arthur couldn't even guess what had Abigail so fascinated.

"When I think of marionettes I think of thin-limbed girls with awkward joints who're wearing long lacy skirts and dresses." Abigail said.

"Which is a bit romanticized, but a better idea of what a marionette is than most people have. Usually when I mention that I manipulate marionettes as a hobby the first thing people ask is 'What, like Pinocchio?'" Mr. Ratburn replied. "Which is technically accurate, but it's a bit limited"

"Well, that's where everyone first hears of them." Abigail conceded.

"Actually, my great grandmother helped to paint them for a puppet theatre. So when I was little my grandmother had several older marionettes in her attic that were nearly as big as I was back then." Mr. Ratburn said. "I was one of those shy and imaginative sorts as a child so I took to them right away."

Arthur had a hard time picturing that. It seemed to him that Mr. Ratburn must have been stern and efficient and well grounded even when he was a child. Mr. Ratburn didn't seem to have any imagination at all from his point of view.

A picture of Mr. Ratburn at D.W's age pretending to hand out homework to a bunch of puppets sitting around a table in an old attic came to mind. Arthur shook his head to clear the bizarre image away.

After a bit when everyone had cleared their plates, some going back for seconds David noted with satisfaction, the dishes were cleared off the table. An air of expectation settled as Jane helped by putting down the dessert plates.

"So... What are we having for dessert?" Nigel asked. An innocent enough question that fooled completely no one.

"Something I suspect you knew to save room for." David said. He pulled the cover off of the chocolate cake and set it down in the middle of the table.

David, being an excellent dessert chef, had looked it over with a rather sharp eye once Abigail had proclaimed that she was done with it. Considering that all he'd done was give her the right tools and a book all about how to decorate a cake she'd done exceptionally well. It was a little crooked, and the shells around the trim weren't all perfectly symmetrical. But the 'thank you' at the top was written in perfect cursive, and the singular rose she'd decided to put on it was as good as any he'd seen professionals make.

He'd tasted the crumbs from the uneven bits that she'd cut off too. It wasn't a half bad cake.

Of course, Nigel wasn't nearly so critical.

"What a perfectly wonderful looking cake." Nigel exclaimed. "But that doesn't look like your usual decorating style." He wasn't blind either.

"Oh no, Abigail made this cake. Especially for you as a thank you." David explained. He cut off a large slice and placed it on the plate Nigel held up.

"How delightful. Thank you so much Gale." Nigel set his plate down on the table and eyed it eagerly. Despite his eagerness he wasn't about to let his manners fail him.

"You're welcome." Abigail answered. "I hope you like it." David almost laughed.

"Oh, I don't think you'll need to worry about THAT Abigail." David said simply.

Nigel gave him a look of pure scorn.

Once all the plates were filled Nigel dug into his, completely forgetting the jibe. Aside from Abigail, no one was holding their breath for his assessment of the cake, everyone knew he was going to like it. So rather than looking at Nigel's face, David turned his attention toward Abigail's reaction.

Abigail wasn't really nervous. She knew the cake was good. But the anticipation of Mr. Ratburn finally eating a piece and getting some sort of approval for the effort was a heart-pounding experience. She knew she was putting too much into this, but nothing seemed more important in that moment right before she knew he was about to taste it. He just HAD to like it.

When Mr. Ratburn took that first bite Abigail almost melted in her seat. The look on his face said it all. He liked it. A lot. Actually, Abigail had to wonder if he liked it a bit too much, all things considered. The face he made was sort of strange.

But it was delightful anyway.

...

Later, after much dawdling around the dinner table and more pleasant conversation, and Mr. Ratburn politely attempting to decline 3rds on the cake but taking them anyway, the dinner finally started to draw to a close. The dishes were stacked neatly in the sink and some tea was served in the living room to keep Mr. Ratburn occupied while Jane put Kate to bed for the evening.

Abigail was set to starting the clean up with a somewhat put upon sigh. She was much more interested in whatever conversation David and Mr. Ratburn were having in the living room. As the self centered teen she was she couldn't help but imagine it was all about her. Which worried her. But not as much as the idea that they weren't talking about her at all. When she strained her ears she could just barely hear them. She could swear she'd heard Caroline's name in there somewhere, that meant they were talking about her... right?

It wasn't long before Jane came back down and it was time to see Mr. Ratburn off. Abigail dried her hands quickly and made a mad dash for the door when she heard them start to say their goodbyes.

"Well, perhaps you'll come over to my place next time. I know how it disturbs my pupils so to have me walking around and talking like a normal adult." Mr. Ratburn said with a grin just as Abigail was sidling up to the group.

"You knew what would happen when you went into teaching while all of your friends were having children." David jokingly scolded. Mr. Ratburn just shook his head with a smile. He used Abigail as a distraction to get out of the conversation.

"Well then. Gale, it was very nice seeing you again. Thank you very much for the cake, it was wonderful." Mr. Ratburn said, turning to her.

"It was no problem, I like baking. Come back for another anytime." Abigail chattered happily.

"Oh, don't say that. I might not eat anything else." Mr. Ratburn protested. Everyone chuckled.

Then goodbyes were said all around and he was off to his car.

After the door was closed and everyone dispersed Abigail snuck back to the door to watch his car drive away.

"Come help finish the dishes Abigail." Jane said with a laugh when she caught her.

"Coming." Abigail almost yelped as she fled from the entryway. She smiled as she recovered from her surprise.

It'd been a really nice dinner.

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**Author's Note:** OMG, I don't know why this was so hard to write! But finally, we are past the whole Rat comes to Dinner bit and I can go on with the story.  
Anyway. Hope you liked this chapter. Mr. Ratburn might not make another significant appearance for a little while since I've got other stuff planned for Abigail. But maybe.


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